Hey guys I put together a quick build for a friends friend! the components are low-mid ranged and the methodology was to get the best for $500. Although I expressed my great disagreement to purchase anything before boxing day to get the best bang for your buck they literally did not want to wait the week longer to get their build.. so with that said I allowed them to get a quote for parts from CanadaComputers and just give me the parts as I was not going to partake in this madness LOL !

Case - Enermax CLIPEUS ECA3212-BL USB3.0 Black ATX Mid Tower

Motherboard - ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 Socket AM3+

Cpu - AMD X4 FX-4300 (95W) Quad-Core Socket AM3+, 3.8GHz

RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1600MHz

Graphics - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 1GB GDDR5

Power Supply - Thermaltake smartSeries 550Watt

HDD 1 - 128GB OCZ SSD (used)

HDD 2 - WD Black 500GB 3.5" SATA3 7200RPM

CPU Cooling - Corsair H80 water cooling

Fan Controller - NZXT Sentry Mesh Fan Controller

Fans - 2 x SP120 High Performance / 3 x CoolerMaster Hyper 120mm

DVD/RW - Samsung (SH-224DB/BEBE) 24x DVD Writer

I did a video log of the build please take a look and let me know what you think for such a simple budget build, I think it will serve it's purpose for the client.

With this said, they are doing a grand opening of an NCIX in Ottawa on boxing day so most likely will be grabbing up a ton of deals at 4AM LOL Im hoping for a few CPU's or cases or cables or watercooling components.

I wouldn't go with this set up at all. If he want a cheap build, just get an AMD APU and be done with it. Is the client going to game with the machine or just use it for office stuff? My following comments / rants:

1. FX-4300 doesn't seem to be any faster than A10-5800K and it doesn't even come with an internal GPU and only $10 cheaper on NCIX.
2. Used OCZ SSD is just asking for trouble especially now that they are bankrupted.
3. Watercooling on a FX-4300 seem like a bit of a waste.
4. I wouldn't use a Thermaltake PSU unless it's confirmed to be made by a reliable OEM.
5. The case seem a bit underwhelming in terms of cooling. I would pick something with at least 2 fans up front.

I wouldn't go with this set up at all. If he want a cheap build, just get an AMD APU and be done with it. Is the client going to game with the machine or just use it for office stuff? My following comments / rants:

1. FX-4300 doesn't seem to be any faster than A10-5800K and it doesn't even come with an internal GPU and only $10 cheaper on NCIX.
2. Used OCZ SSD is just asking for trouble especially now that they are bankrupted.
3. Watercooling on a FX-4300 seem like a bit of a waste.
4. I wouldn't use a Thermaltake PSU unless it's confirmed to be made by a reliable OEM.
5. The case seem a bit underwhelming in terms of cooling. I would pick something with at least 2 fans up front.

Thanks for the input

Trust me I Pleaded and Pleaded with the guy to just wait till boxing day and we can get way better parts, but he wasn't listening (friend of a friend) and so I washed my hands and said if you want my to build it I will but you go get the parts cause I'm not condoning this waste of money.

With that said the H80 was bought for $35 on Kijiji used, as well the fans I put in were laying around from other builds and sooped it up as best I could with what I was working with

I guess you were ing during the whole build like I am now? It's not about the boxing day deals (because you trade deals for frustration if it's out of stock), but just how many things don't seem right with the build.

A single stick of RAM but a water cooled CPU? I guess he will overclock only to smash into a memory bottleneck while turning the texture / object detail higher?

I guess you were ing during the whole build like I am now? It's not about the boxing day deals (because you trade deals for frustration if it's out of stock), but just how many things don't seem right with the build.

A single stick of RAM but a water cooled CPU? I guess he will overclock only to smash into a memory bottleneck while turning the texture / object detail higher?

You don't need nearly that many fans unless you like fan noise (saying this as I fold / coin mine on a 660Ti and OC'd 2500K with 120mm intake, 120mm exhaust, and 20cm exhaust at 800-1200 RPM)

+all the stuff moocow said

Oh well...

Lol your preaching to the choir, I actually tried several times to find him a 2500K because that was my build a few years back and you can OC that to like 4.7 with barely any cooling. The single stick of ram LOL trust me I know hahahah and don't even get me started on the Power supply, do you know how hard it was to do with cable management with that sucker!!!!

anyways it is what it is I am about to do a $5000+ build in January and trust me you guys will appreciate the parts aesthetics and build log I'm going to put up for this dual 780Ti's WC's custom acrylic tubing and sleeving the works so definitely stay tuned for that one ;)

At the end of the day, was the friend of the friend happy with the build? I think that's all that really matters.

Which I doubt he will. He's probably think he's all gangsta for sourcing those parts. "Hey dawgs! The CPU got FX in the name! Sound so awesome! With a H80 watercooler, I'll overclock the jizz out of it, bitches! It's going to be so fast, child please, don't even try to out snipe me!".